Capt.Fred J. Christensen

56th FG Ace - 21½ Aerial Victories

On the 7th of July, 1944, Capt. Fred Christensen was leading the
Thunderbolts of the 62nd Squadron on an escort mission. Passing over
the Luftwaffe airfield at Gardelegen, he noticed some activity and
dropped down for a better look. 35 aircraft lay in dispersal. He
reversed the squadron's direction, turning it back for a strafing run.

But then about a dozen Ju 52's approached the field for
a landing. The
big and slow transports made tempting targets for Christensen's
fighters, although their very slowness made it difficult to judge
relative closure speed; it was easy for the fast Thunderbolts to
overshoot them.

He approached the air traffic from above and picked off the
next-to-last transport. He saw strikes on its left side; as he roared
beyond it, his wingman witnessed its explosion. He instantly lined up a
second target and fired at close range, setting it afire. A third
Junkers was turning left and Christensen caught it with a deflection
burst. He saw its right gas tanks burning. The pilot desperately tried
to land, but fell short in a field.

Suddenly, as he tried for a fourth attack, his engine quit. He had
run a gas tank dry. After switching tanks, his engine re-started, and
Fred found another Ju 52 in his sights. Now barely 100 feet off the
ground, he made a few hits, forcing the German pilot to try to evade.
The transport nosed down sharply, too sharply, and crashed before it
could pull out. Four down! He got behind a fifth airplane, moved in to
extremely close range, and fired again, scoring many hits on the
fuselage and wing roots. This plane also crashed as it tried to land.

Before it was over, he shot down two more. A total of six in one
day, a feat matched by a handful of USAAF aces. They were his last of
the war, bringing his total to 21½ confirmed aerial victories.

Born in Watertown, Mass. on October 17, 1921, Frederick J.
Christensen, Jr. attended Boston University and MIT before enlisting in
the US Army Air Corps. After completing flight training in December, 1942, he was
assigned to the 62nd Squadron of the 56th Fighter Group and was in
Europe by the Fall of 1943.

He scored his first victory in November, a twin-engine Me-110 over
Papenburg. As the 56th FG was flying a lot of missions, his score
mounted steadily: a Bf-109 on December 1, an Fw-190 in January 1944,
another Fw-190 in February, and his fifth victory, making him an ace,
was a Bf-109 on February 11. By mid-April, he had been credited with
14½ kills.

After the war, Christensen served with the Massachusetts Air
National Guard and the US Air Force Reserve. He retired as a Colonel in
1970. His honors include the Silver Star, DFC with 6 Oak Leaf Clusters,
and the Air Medal with 2 OLC's.